As Thursday night turned into Friday morning and seemingly all of Boston became a crime scene navigated by police in pursuit of the men responsible for the bombings at the marathon, some 150,000 people listened in to the chatter over police radios using Broadcastify, an online service that provides live streams of police scanners.

By Friday morning, the Boston Police Department was using social media to try to contain the threat stemming from too many ears on its radio communications: The department sent out a Tweet pleading with people to stop sharing tactical information gleaned from the scanner feeds.

Broadcastify promptly complied by taking the feed off the air, but individuals continued to use social media to dispense updates culled from other police radio broadcasting services, complicating police operations and underscoring the modern challenges of police work in an age in which seemingly everyone is connected.